In October 2024, border guards stopped a 65-year-old travel agent trying to carry €10,000 in cash into Estonia from Russia. Tatjana Sokolova was supposed to deliver the money to Andrei Andronov, a Russian national on trial in Estonia. Accused there of collaborating with Russian intelligence, he needed to pay his legal fees.

It remains unclear why this travel agency head was helping Andronov, but authorities quickly discovered that the money was not hers. She had gone to collect the cash on the other side of the border after receiving the funds in a Russian bank account, sent from Pravfond, the Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Russian Compatriots Living Abroad – an organization created and funded by the Russian government. In April 2025, Sokolova, who did not respond to our requests for comment, was convicted in Estonia of violating sanctions against Moscow.

Pravfond's stated aim is to defend the interests of Russians living abroad, mostly by providing legal aid. But, the foundation has also financed pro-Russian propaganda in various European countries, especially the former Soviet states in the Baltics, and helped advance the Kremlin's foreign policy interests. The "Dear Compatriots" Project, conducted in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and involving some 20 media outlets, also revealed that Pravfond paid the legal fees of alleged spies.

Sanctioned since 2023

The European Union sanctioned Pravfond and its executive director, Aleksandr Oudaltsev, in June 2023, making it theoretically much harder to move money into Europe. But tens of thousands of internal Pravfond emails obtained by Danish public broadcaster DR – shared with the OCCRP consortium and 28 partner media outlets, including Le Monde – show how the foundation has been able to continue its work across Europe with relative ease.

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